Ruben Oso moves to Manhattan to start his life over as a
low-rent bodyguard and stumbles into a gig in a swanky Park
Avenue penthouse. What begins as executive protection turns
personal working for a debonair zillionaire who makes Ruben
question everything about himself.

Watching over financial hotshot Andy Bauer puts Ruben in an
impossible position. He knows zero about shady trading and his
cocky boss lives barricaded in a glass tower with wall-to-wall
secrets and hot-and-cold running paranoia. Can the danger be
real? Is Andy for real?

What’s a bulletcatcher to do? Ruben knows his emotions are out
of control even as he races to untangle a high-priced conspiracy
and his crazy feelings before somebody gets dead. If his
suspicions are right, Andy will pay a price neither can afford
and Ruben may discover there’s no way to guard a heart.

For any bloggers or journos interested in participating in the
release of Pent Up, I'll be offering
the following:

Cover art for the reveal on 29 October

e-ARCs of Pent Up for all participating bloggers for
review

3 excerpts (300-800 words)

Individual e-copies of Pent Up available for
participating blogs to give away as prizes. We'll provide
the book, you manage and select winners

self-selected tour stop dates (within a range of dates).
As long as you provide a link, I'll come splash around in
the comments and convos.

Rafflecopter grand prize (provided & managed by me) link
or embed code which bloggers can include in post

up to 5 interview questions (must submit by 7 Nov)

listing on the book's page with your blog hyperlinked
from name and date of stop noted

Beyond that, if you're interested in exclusive content please
contact me ASAP and I'll do my best to make it work. My fall is
about to get crazypants for reasons I can make public shortly,
so sooner is better.

This excerpt from Chapter 5
of Pent Up
comes after a museum fundraiser where Ruben Oso’s worked
as a bodyguard for financier Andy Bauer. Ruben has been
sober almost a year, and now he’s squiring his drunk
boss back to the Park Avenue penthouse.

--------------------------

Ruben laced his fingers together
in his lap, conscious of Andy’s splayed legs bumping against
his as the car curved through the dark trees.

How could it only have been a
week? Joking and bickering like this, smiling and snapping
at each other, they sounded like… something else.

The town car veered to the left
and Ruben had to grip the door to keep from being shifted
against his boss’s strong legs. They passed under some kind
of bridge and then slowed to a stop. They inched along in
the Park’s crosstown traffic.

He could imagine himself on
Andy’s terrace staring down at Central Park. He looked out
the window at the passing trees: nature boxed in so a few
penthouses had something to look at.

Andy rolled his head to watch
Ruben watching him.

Buddies. Yeah, right.

Andy pushed himself back,
shifting his weight. His hand scraped Ruben’s and… remained
on the seat, separated by a millimeter or two. The light
hair on his wrist brush-brushed the wisps on Ruben’s, rocked
by the car’s motion.

Ruben swallowed. He wanted to
slide the hand away from the delicious feathery scrape, and
at the same time wondered how long Andy would leave it
there. He wondered what would happen if he closed his dark
square paw over Andy’s, laced their fingers and squeezed. He
could imagine the way their knuckles would intersect and the
exact pressure of Andy’s smooth palm against his.
That skin.

Occasionally the car jostled them
as it navigated potholes and pedestrians, gently rocking
their shoulders, but their two hands stayed nailed to the
firm, soft leather, barely touching, but touching
nonetheless. That warm strip of Andy’s hand made it hard to
breathe.

Why didn’t Andy move his arm
back? Then again, why wouldn’t he? As the car glided under
the black trees, Ruben’s whole being, all his attention,
tightened around the half-inch of faint contact between
their skin. Ruben imagined he could feel Andy’s pulse, then
realized he was hearing his own as it jarred his skull.

If the brushing contact wasn’t an
accident, removing his hand first would send a clear
message. Easier to leave it there in case.

In case of what?

In case he was a queer? In case
his boss was another? In case they needed to go out together
to spend another fifty thousand American dollars to buy
nothing in particular in a room full of strangers? The money
and the man had gotten all jumbled in his head.

Maybe that was it. Ruben had
gotten sucked in by all the sloppy luxury and forgotten
whose it was. He wasn’t gay, just broke, sober, and lonely.
Even if Andy was some kind of closeted homo, he had no
interest in playing house with some middle-aged macho he’d
known for a few days and rescued from a couch. Ruben had
clocked the predator in him. If Andy wanted a dude, he’d
lease some Calvin Klein model with a trust fund and a degree
in corporate espionage.

And still, and still…. The
butterfly stroke of Andy’s wrist hairs dried his mouth and
pricked his eyes, and Andy had no clue.
I want him.

All too suddenly, the car sliced
out of the trees across Fifth, headed east.

"I couldn’t put it down. There is so much wisdom, so much
metaphor, so much sheer beauty ...Although the men are
breathtakingly sexy, it’s almost as though
there’s no overt attempt to titillate, but to show how their
souls grow into acceptance of their burgeoning love...This
is masterful writing. The characters are so
intensely rendered and developed that they come to life as
three-dimensional, complex, realistic and empathetic
human beings jumping off the page into the reader’s heart.
And the writing! Mr. Suede’s dialogue is an
exploration of the human state, often more poetry
than prose. His descriptions are not just apt, but
often lyrical. Superbly-written, profound and
profoundly beautiful novel about men learning to
love, a brilliant work..." Alan for
Sinfully Book Reviews

"Pent Up has so many
layers that it is hard to know where to begin...You
may think you know what’s going on, but I assure you, you
don’t. The truth is so much better...A
romance that is all that and more...
Personally, I think it’s Suede’s best yet."
Books Make Me Happy

"Everyone! Damon Suede's new book Pent Up
is unplug the phone and don't leave the house
amazing! Can't. Stop. Reading."
Christopher Rice, New York Times/USA Today bestselling
author